Sleepers is a 1996 legal

Legal drama

A legal drama is a work of dramatic fiction about crime and civil litigation. Subtypes of legal dramas include courtroom dramas and legal thrillers, and come in all forms, including novels, television shows, and films. Legal drama sometimes overlap with crime drama, most notably in the case of Law...

 drama film

Drama film

A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

 written, produced, and directed by Barry Levinson

Barry Levinson

Barry Levinson is an American screenwriter, film director, actor, and producer of film and television. His films include Good Morning, Vietnam, Sleepers and Rain Man.-Early life:...

, and based on Lorenzo Carcaterra

Lorenzo Carcaterra

Lorenzo Carcaterra is an American writer. Hell's Kitchen is the setting for his most famous book, Sleepers, which was adapted into the Sleepers...

's 1995 novel of the same name.
Lorenzo "Shakes" Carcaterra

Lorenzo Carcaterra

Lorenzo Carcaterra is an American writer. Hell's Kitchen is the setting for his most famous book, Sleepers, which was adapted into the Sleepers...

 (Joseph Perrino

Joseph Perrino

Joe Perrino was born and raised in the Bronx, New York to Italian parents and began acting when a casting director for the film "Sleepers" saw Joe standing on a street corner and asked him to read for the film. After months of auditioning Joe won one of the lead roles of young Lorenzo "Shakes"...

), Thomas "Tommy" Marcano (Jonathan Tucker

Jonathan Tucker

Jonathan Moss Tucker is an American film and television actor, best known for his roles in the movies The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Hostage, In the Valley of Elah and The Ruins, and The Black Donnellys on television....

), Michael Sullivan (Brad Renfro

Brad Renfro

Brad Barron Renfro was an American actor. He made his film debut in 1994 at age 12 in the lead role of Joel Schumacher's The Client, going on to star in 21 feature films, several short films, and two television episodes during his career. Much of his later career was marred by a pattern of...

), and John Reilly (Geoffrey Wigdor

Geoffrey Wigdor

Geoffrey Wigdor is an American actor. He is best known for his role in the drama film Sleepers in 1996.- Career :...

) are four childhood friends who grew up in Hell's Kitchen

Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan

Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton and Midtown West, is a neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City between 34th Street and 59th Street, from 8th Avenue to the Hudson River....

, New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 in the mid-1960s. During this time, the local priest, Father Bobby (Robert De Niro

Robert De Niro

Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...

), plays a very important part in their lives and keeps an eye on them.